Streep Tease is pretty much what it says on the tin - an
evening of Meryl Streep monologues performed by an all-male cast. What started
out in Los Angeles in 2009 has made it to Manchester in 2018. It is clear that
the cast made up of Paul Antony, Michael Pope, Callum Taylor and Josh Vince all
absolutely adore Meryl Streep. And if you are a fan of the Oscar Winner you
will have a fantastic evening, but if you’re not so familiar with her body of
work then some of the humour in the show may go over your head.
Each actor gets to
take on two of Streep’s most iconic pieces including her Academy Award winning
performances in The Iron Lady, Sophie’s Choice and Kramer vs Kramer. Although
the pieces were written for a female actor each member of the cast puts their
own spin on the pieces. However, the standout performance for me was Antony’s
interpretation of the Iron Lady - it was powerful but also absolutely
hilarious.
On the whole most of the performances were pretty decent. I did
notice there was no Director mentioned in the programme, and perhaps there
wasn’t one. There were a few things that may have been addressed if a Director
was there, in particular in The Devil Wears Prada piece Antony did speak a bit
too fast, so some words were lost. The intimacy in Pope’s interpretation of
Sophie’s Choice was great but due to a lot of noise coming from outside the
building meant I was straining to hear what he was saying. I understand that it is
supposed to be a timid and quiet scene but perhaps a bit more volume would have
helped, or even positioning himself closer to the audience.
Antony proved
himself to be a good host as halfway through the night he hosted a Streep Smart
Quiz with members of the audience. It was a fantastic idea to include to
audience in the show. It was fun and from this the audience warmed to them more.
Whether it was intentional or not I’m not sure, but there seemed to be an error
at the beginning of the show when the opening montage played twice. The cast
did try to style it out, however because it was such a long clip I think it
would have been better to stop it and switch to the correct one.
No evening of
Meryl would be complete without a mention of Mamma Mia, and there is not just a
mention that can do justice to the finale is a singalong of the classic ‘Dancing Queen’, which was
great fun to watch and be a part of.
Reviewer - Brian Madden
on - 30/8/18
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